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web page formating - Front Page

         

perseus109

7:01 pm on Jun 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have been asked to optimize a website for promotion in search engines. When I did an import of the page into FrontPage (it was created in FrontPage but I don't have password to the site yet) as preparation to go talk to them, I found that the name and address is posted on the site in FP as follows:

[]
[]
[]
Telephone: []
Fax: []
eMail: []

Upon looking at the code, I found this code:

<h5><!--webbot bot="Substitution" S-Variable="TheCourtyard" --><br>
<!--webbot bot="Substitution" S-Variable="Address" --><br>
<!--webbot bot="Substitution" S-Variable="CityState" --><br>
Telephone: <!--webbot bot="Substitution" S-Variable="Phone" --><br>
Fax: <!--webbot bot="Substitution" S-Variable="Fax" --><br>
eMail: <a href="mailto:info@example.com">
<!--webbot bot="Substitution" S-Variable="eMail" --></a></h5>
<h5><br>

Now, I know that they are using variable replacement to post the sites info, but my question is why? I could see it if this was information that will change, but I really don't think the name, address and phone number for them is going to change anytime soon. Also, wouldn't the search engines not see it if they do it that way? The only reason I could think of would be to avoid being called by solicitors.

Any opinions appreciated.

[edited by: heini at 12:22 pm (utc) on July 1, 2003]
[edit reason] removed site specific info [/edit]

korkus2000

12:18 pm on Jul 1, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Some people really just use things in frontpage that don't make much sense. I have seen this before and the person who created it had no real reason why they did it.

Poweroid

12:05 pm on Jul 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Our Frontpage site has now grown to 1000 pages. And we recently moved to new, larger premises. How I really, really wish I had used all those Frontpage substitutions for address/phone number etc right from the start.

NeedScripts

12:07 pm on Jul 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Hi Poweroid,

I am not sure but still am gonna jump in..

why not use mass search and replace and update it the way you want it?

NS

NeedScripts

12:10 pm on Jul 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



(it was created in FrontPage but I don't have password to the site yet)

Well you might wanna get the password before you make the edits.. cuz you never know if those pages are called by using page include or what.. also if you work within the FP web.. you are less likely to mess up existing web..

NS

Poweroid

6:10 pm on Jul 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



NeedScripts,

That's what I did but in FP it's a full day's worth of work. It finds the list of pages in which your "find and replace" term appears. But the "Replace All" in FP actually means replace-one-by-one till you bl**dy die of boredom. Unless you use some other program to do the replacing.

Substitutions and include pages (SSI) are now big favourites of mine.

pageoneresults

6:47 pm on Jul 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Poweroid, when you perform your Find and Replace routine in FP and want to change those occurrences across all pages, make sure to select...

Find where: All pages
Find in HTML

That will do a global find and replace. Depending on your system speed, this may only take seconds.

The Substitution feature in FP is like a mini include file. Since I typically place address information in a footer include, I've not had the need to use the Substituion feature since I started with FP back in 1996.

Also, that Substitution feature generates code bloat. You can do the same thing with an FP include.

<!--webbot bot="include" u-include="/address.asp" tag="body" -->

The address.asp include file...

<h5>The Courtyard<br>
Address<br>
City, State, Zip<br>
Telephone:<br>
Fax:<br>
eMail: <a href="mailto:info@example.com">info@example.com</a></h5>

P.S. SSI = Server Side Includes. Some have argued that the FP includes are not SSI. They perform the same function.

Poweroid

10:45 am on Jul 6, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



pageoneresults.

>> Find where: All pages
Find in HTML

That's exactly what I do. Then you've got to manually edit each page and go back to search. Otherwise it will indiscriminately replace every occurance of the find term, even in comments, legal documents, terms and conditions, third party provided content.... everything!

NeedScripts

12:04 pm on Jul 6, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Well when I do search replace all.. it does it in no time.. but I guess if you have few thousand then it might take few minutes..

Unless you use some other program to do the replacing.

I also use software like Code Switcher (it rocks)... but again, every software will have to scan all the pages and it will take some time for any software to search-replace few thousand pages..

P.S.. I myself love include pages function.. I think it is the best thing MS ever came up with ;) also in FP 2003, there are going to be more improved and new features ;)

NS

pageoneresults

12:30 pm on Jul 6, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Otherwise it will indiscriminately replace every occurance of the find term, even in comments, legal documents, terms and conditions, third party provided content.... everything!

Poweroid, if the content you are replacing is unique throughout all pages, then the all pages feature is the best way to do it.

If the content you are replacing is the same for other bits of content that do not change, then yes, you'll have to go through each page and replace just those occurrences that need to be replaced.

FrontPage will find all the occurrences for you and present you with a list of pages where the occurrences were found. When the list is presented to you, there will be red balls to the left of each page in the dialog window. This tells you that there is an occurrence(s) found.

As soon as you click all pages in the F&R dialog box, the replace option grays out and you are left with replace all and find next options.

Double click the the first page in the dialog box once the find routine has finished and FP will now open that page and show you each occurrence. You can replace or find next your way through each page until you've completed the operation. FP will automatically prompt you to save the page once it has inspected that page open in the editor. You don't have to physically open each page and hunt yourself, FP will do it for you and save you a lot of time.

You can also do selective find and replace routines. Meaning, you can select a group of pages where you know that content is and just search those pages, you do not have to search the entire web.

Use your FP help and look up the Find and Replace routine help menu. I've learned more about FP reading the help section than everything else combined.

Poweroid

8:39 am on Jul 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Pageoneresults,

Thanks for your help and sorry for the delay in replying.

Yes, I've learned a lot from the Frontpage help myself. Though I don't trust it very much. (How can you be sure that it won't push you down some Netscape unfriendly route? :-))

Quote: If the content you are replacing is the same for other bits of content that do not change

I guess that's what my problem is :-(

Also, Perseus109, to answer one of your original questions, search engines won't have any problems with it. They won't see the "substitution" word at all. Open the source for the page in a browser .... that's the code the search engine sees.